Four bills to be introduced in Parliament to protect women

Bangalore, June 21 (UNI) Four Bills to protect women from eve teasing, Devadasi system, witch hunting and women trafficking will be introduced in the next session of Parliament, National Commission for Women Chairperson Dr Girija Vyas said today.

Talking to newspersons here, she stressed the need for changing the definition of the Sexual Assault Bill and making punishment more stringent for those involved in eve teasing.

On the Protection of Women From Domestic Violence Act, 2005, gazetted in October 2006, she said the Act had to be popularised as neither the police, Advocates nor the victims were aware of it. Under the Act, the State Governments should appoint Protection Officers to provide necessary protection to the assaulted women. NGOs should also be involved in creating awareness about the Act and its benefits.

Reeling out statistics, Dr Vyas said that the rape cases showed an increasing trend in the country, with the figures being 15,847 in 2003, 18,233 (2004) and 18,359 (2005). So was the case with kidnapping - 13,296 cases (2003), 15,578 (2004) and 15,750 (2005).

Noting that there might be many more cases which went unreported, she said 6,208 dowry death cases were reported in 2003 and the figure rose to 7,026 in 2004 and fell to 6,787 in 2005. The number of cases relating to cruelty by husband and eve teasing remained static at about 58,000 and 12,000 respectively in the three years.

As many as 32,939 cases of molestation were reported in 2003, which increased to 34,569 in 2004 and 34,175 in 2005.

State Women and Child Welfare Minister H K Kumaraswamy, said the State Government had appointed Protection Officers in all the taluks and Rs 2.65 crore had been earmarked in the budget for taking up awareness programmes.

He urged the Union Government to provide atleast Rs 10 crore to the State Government for carrying out awareness programmes and other activities to help the victims.

UNI